Fluid flow metering and integrating instrument and the like, with zero stabilizer



Feb. 23, 1954 H. ZIEGLER 2,669,874 FLUID FLOW METERING AND INTEGRATING INSTRUMENTS AND THE. LIKE, WITH ZERO STABILIZER Filed Oct. 1'7, 1950 FIG. 2 a C FIG. 3

fii INVENTOR Ai Patented Feb. 23, 1954 2,669,874 FLUID. FLOW METERING AND INTEGRATING INSTRUMENT STABIIQIZER 1 Horst Ziegler, Berlin,

AND THE LIKE; WITH'ZEROI Germany, assignor to- AskaniarWerke AL'G Application October 17,

a corporation... of. Get

1950} Serial No. 1903154 Glaims'lpriority,-- application. Germany Qctober 29, 1949.

My invention relates t'oametereintiegrators for. volumes ot'fluid flow and the like. Ithasparticular reference to a. meter-integrator of thei type which measures dillf'erential pressure, c.0mpensat'ing it by an el'ectrodynamic force, andtopr crating accordingly with forces proportional. .to the square of" the volumeltolbe metered.v Such. instruments. have: beensubject to. uncertainty and lack of stability of the metering resultinthe zero region.

I have eliminated. this. lack of. stability, by the addition. of. a. small,. simple inexpensive. practically indestructible. permanent. magnet .to the measuring and transmitting. instrument.

It'has further occurred to methat the-zerm stabilizing, magnet of. my transmitteriwhen suitably. proportioned and. arranged, solves. a separate, important: problem. of ..the meteringand integrati'ng. receiver that. is,. it compensates the inherent, unavoidable error which is due to. the starting,v friction of. a. meter-integrator.

This invention is an improvement over that disclosed in the copending application... of. G.. Wuensch, Serial No.190,453,.filedOictober 17, 1950, wherein a transmitting instrument is describedyin greater detail. However. the present improvement can also be used in. other transmittin' instruments, for instance. in. several of. those disclosed in the earlierPatent No. 2 319363 of'G. Wuensch et al.

The invention will. be understood 'uponcone sideration of a typical embodiment described hereinafter and further explained. bythe drawing appended hereto. In this drawing, Figure. 1 illustrates schematically a preferred form. of an: paratus hereunder. Figure 2' is, a diagram of force relationships in. the transmitter and, Figure his a diagram offoperating characteristics of the receiver.

A iluidlfiow conduit C" has interposedthereon. a meanslD to derive .apressure. differentiallfrom. thefi'ovv; forlinstance an orifice plateas shown. The fiuidpressure differential. is converted into a. mechanicalforce proportionaltlierewith, by an actuator A conneetedwith the conduit by tubes B; for instance bya diaphragm device as shown.

The transmitter-housing 6.. comprises .a come pensating lever B aetuatedin. well=known..manner through linkage. Biiromihe movable member E .:of.'the rdifferential.pressureeresponsive element l .namic system H]; 3.0.

8 carries a movable coil. electrodynamic system. stationary core II and a themovable coil l9 Iprefer to locate the magnet 3| almere wire-.extending;into the ing contact therewith.

The electrodynamic system of' the diagonal. 33' of a Wheatstone bridgep3 fi It is inseries with. an electric meter .35,,,of.the ampere hour tim actuating the inte rator 38.

will Of'butpavoid':

The bridge comprises a rheostatj'l adjustable by? suitableilinkag e or other means 3Bigovernedgfby. lever 8. For details, I'refer to said ,copending. ape plication.

In operation a variablequantity ally direct or bridge. if the diagonal is provided with a differential pressure derived from pulsating passes proportional to Q? As this movement takes .placeiit produces a shifting, of rheostat. 3I..-by. linkage 3'8; establishing an. electric, current of; gradually rising densit tin the diagonal. 3310f;- This current produces a. compensate-i bridge 34'. ingpforce p proportionalflto. 2' in the .electrdclyi-- moment ofp on lever 8balanc es the momentioi Q 2 That is, the instruments keeps proportional to' Q -and* therefore i proportionahtuQf The rotor of an electric speed proportional with z".

This operation can: be represented-by curvez'w in Figure; 2;. a parabola/Are :resenting. the: terminal 22:22. The entire operation can be: made-very? accurate; audits representation. byva ltruezpalrabe 01a arcanhervery adequate, in generialll There is onelimitation to such qacelmaettg." lherent in. the. parabolic re tionshim Than.

I0, 30 forms part QL-ofja fluid passes the pressure difierentiall-derivingl device D during a unit of time. A suitable current usue hIiQllgh l the; It may also be an alternating current. rectifier. The: the. fluidifiow. tends to move lever 8"to one side withl aliorce.

The movement of lever. 8 stops When i 'has risen to the point Where the meter 35 rotates at" a Accordingly this?" speed is: directlyproportional to: Q, and thednte near the zero value of Q, the parabola a is asymptotic to coordinate i. In this region minute changes of p produce relatively major changes of a. In other words, very low values of Q cannot be measured with full accuracy. Various influences, such as unavoidable although small vibrations of lever S or 38, will tend to temporarily distort the measurement; and such distortion becomes relatively serious when Q approaches zero. At such times the direction of current flowing in the bridge diagonal 33 and meter 35 is reversed; and a similar reversal occurs for instance pursuant to a rapid and substantial measurement impulse taking place in the zero region, which causes the lever (it to swing slightly beyond the new theoretical measurement value due to mass inertia. Still another reason for current reversal may arise in the electrical system, which may utilize a resilient type of resistor instead or the conventional rheostat means 31; see for instance said copending application Ser. No. 190,453 at 23. In any such case reversals of the current in the bridge diagonal are apt to occur due to the elastic oscillations taking place in the direct vicinity of the zero point. Such reversals would not seriously affect the accuracy of integrator 33 if they could be metered correctly, that is as negative values. This, however, is not the case since the power of a current is inde pendent of direction. Therefor the zero position of lever 8 tends to be unstable, and the measurement at 36 tends to be inaccurate when fluid flows are close to zero for appreciable times. Such measurement actually is inaccurate in instrumentsknown to the art.

The magnet and pole shoe 3|, 32 reduce and practically eliminate such inaccuracy. Their constant flux, cooperating with a part of the variable flux of the movable coil l0, superimposes an auxiliary force upon the basic force shown by parabola a. The auxiliary force is represented by line b passing through the i-coordinate at zero point at an angle a and intersecting parabola a at a point t in the first quadrant. The magnet 3|, 32 can be so selected that the parabolic line from t to the zero point substantially coincides with the zone of poor stability for lever 8. The proper location of t can be determined by simple tests. Figure 2 exaggerates the extent of the unstable zone, the relative magnitude of the auxiliary magnetic forces and the inclination a of line b in the interest of readability.

Line b stands for an auxiliary magnetic force acting on lever 8 in the same (positive) direction as does the principal compensating force of magnets Hi, 30. In other words, both magnets 3i), 3! are here assumed to have poles of the same denomination, for instant north poles, opposite the coil l0. However it is also possible to arrange magnets 38, 3| with poles of opposite denomination opposite the coil Ill; for instance by reversal of magnet 3| or of diagonal 33. This results in an auxiliary magnetic force represented by line b, which intersects parabola a at a point s in the second quadrant, having the same distance from the vertex of the parabola as does the point t. In the case of a positive magnetic force the total compensating force acting on lever 8 equals the sum c=a+b. In the case of a negative magnetic force it equals a-b or the sum c=c+b. The value c is represented by a' curve passing the i axis at a definite angle, instead of approaching it asymptotically.

greatly stabilizes the values of i in the danger zone near the zero point for Q.

In other words, a small current flows in diagonal 33 even when p and Q drop to zero.

Theoretically this would seem undesirable since it seems to distort the current impulse of the transmitter instrument 6. Actually I prefer this variant. My reason is that, upon proper selection of magnet 31, 32 I can produce a characteristic line 0' which are zero value for 2) involves a current value Ai, as large as the current equivalent A2 of the starting friction in meter inte grator 35, 35. This value is shown in Figure 3.

It is known that current meter-integrators have a starting error due to the friction of gears and other parts. Such an instrument theoretically operates according to a characteristic line L expressing a certain ratio of meter revolutions n to current values i. Actually most meter integrators operate according to a line M which runs parallel with L and is displaced in the direction i, by the value M of the initial, frictional meter error. This error can be minimized to some extent by the use of special materials and excellent workmanship in the making of the meter and integrator, or by the use of electronic inte grators. In either case it is hard and very expensive to reduce this error substantially below a value such as 1% of the capacity current for the meter. It is much easier and cheaper to keep the sum total of all errors in the present type of transmitter 6, including the electric controls, to a value far below a tolerance of plus or minus /2%.

It will now be understood that magnet 3i, 32 not only stabilizes the zero position of lever 8, making the transmitter 6 more useful, but also improves the receiving meter-integrator 35, 36 making it considerably more accurate. It provides this latter improvement without extra ex pense, while similar improvements can practically not be achieved by a meter-integrator mechanism at all, and can be achieved only at a prohibitive cost by electronic meter-integrators.

I claim:

1. In a metering system using a condition responsive actuator yielding a force proportional to the square of the condition to be metered, such as a differential pressure type flow metering system, a square root extracting and zero stabilising transmitter, comprising an electrodynamic system of at least one stationary coil and a cooperating core and a least one movable coil; a circuit including said coils and connected to control a remote meter integrator of the ampere hour type; a variable resistor connected to' control the circuit; a movable part connected to be moved by and in response to the square-proportional forces applied thereto by the actuator and oppositely directed forces applied by the electrcdynamic system, the movable part also being connected to vary the resistor and thereby to balance itself; and a small stationary magnet, hav- .ing a pole adjacent the core of the stationary coil and facing the movable coil, so that when a zero force is applied by the actuator to the movable part, that part is balanced by the mutually opposed effects of (l) the mechanical force of the magnetic circuit between the small magnet and movable coil and (2) the mechanical force produced in the electrodynamic system by a small electric current flowing through the same.

2. Apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein the small stationary magnet is a permanent mag.-

net mounted adjacent the electrodynamic sysaeeaen tem and having a pole shoe extending from ad- References Cited in the file or this patent iacent the stationary coil into the movable coil. UNITED STATES PATENTS 3. Apparatus as described in claim 2, wherein v said pole shoe has magnetic polarity opposite to Number Name Date that of the adjacent stationary coil, whereby the 5 1491316 Gibson July 1916 small electric current flowing in response to a 23191363 Wunsch May 1943 zero force applied by the actuator not only stabilises the zero position of the transmitter but FOREIGN PATENTS also tends to correct the initial friction lag of Number Country Date the meter integrator. 10 813,898 Germany Sept. 17, 1949 HORST ZIEGLER. 

